A sigh of relief was shrouded behind a smile in the immediate aftermath of Mike Brown’s debut as New York Knicks coach. Replacing Tom Thibodeau and beginning the season with summer expectations for the first time in decades, Brown needed a smooth start.
“Good first win,” Brown said following the Knicks’ season-opening victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers, “knowing that we’ve got a lot of room to grow.”
It’s been change after change over the past year inside Madison Square Garden, beginning in September 2024 with the shocking trade of Julius Randle to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Karl-Anthony Towns on the eve of training camp. (Randle returns to New York for the second time Wednesday; 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.)
So far, only two-way wing Mikal Bridges seems fully comfortable in Brown’s system that prioritizes ball movement and a faster pace. Bridges, who is averaging career highs in field goal and 3-point percentages, looks like a different player than the one who was unsure in his first season as a Knick and no longer relegated to feeding off the gravity created by All-Stars Jalen Brunson and Towns.
What the Knicks are as a whole, though, remains a mystery. Brown’s new system still looks like a slog at times, leading to a bottom-10 pace through seven games. Towns, meanwhile, is finding his footing in Brown’s offense after an All-NBA first season in New York under Thibodeau.
But opening night marked an important change from last season. Before their second-round upset of the defending champion Boston Celtics, the Knicks had gone 0-8 against the East’s two top teams last season. The win against the Cavs was a signal they have the ability to lead the pack in a conference devoid of a truly dominant team. Based on the first few weeks of action in New York, where do the Knicks stand in that pursuit? Could injuries get in the way?
Let’s examine what’s new, what’s working and what remains a work in progress as the new-look Knicks continue their latest evolution.
— Vincent Goodwill
Considering it took the Knicks more than a month to hire Brown as Thibodeau’s replacement — and that was after several failed attempts to land candidates under contract with other teams — it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the acclimation process between the coach and his players has taken time. Brown was the best available choice, but not a perfect one. And, as the Knicks are navigating these early season waters, there’s been some choppy seas to deal with through seven games.
“A lot of it is just taking them time to figure out the offense,” an East executive told ESPN.
The adjustments begin with All-Star big man Towns, who broke out for a season-high 33 points Monday against the Washington Wizards but is shooting a fairly shocking 40.8% from the field, nearly 8% lower than any season across his 10 years in the NBA. He raised eyebrows just before the season, when he declared he didn’t yet know his role in Brown’s offense, and proceeded to feel his way into the new system in the opening weeks.
“He certainly had a clear role under [Thibodeau],” a Western Conference scout said, “and he’s made it known he’s not overly excited about his lack of a role now.”
Josh Hart, who was synonymous with Thibodeau’s rigorous system, regularly played huge minutes (at least 40 in 23 regular-season games last year) as a critical cog in New York’s run to the Eastern Conference finals.
Now, Hart is adjusting to a full-time bench role while playing through a nerve issue in his right shooting hand that’s a result of a reaggravation of a finger injury he initially suffered in May.
Similar concerns surround center Mitchell Robinson, who has a well-chronicled injury history and has already been relegated to a load management plan to attempt to get him through the regular season and to the playoffs. Since the start of 2023-24, Robinson has played just 50 games.
Every time he goes to the ground in pain — like he did during Sunday’s win over the Chicago Bulls, appearing to tweak his ankle on what looked like an innocuous play — there’s a collective holding of breath among Knicks fans, given Robinson’s impact on the team from a rim protection and rebounding standpoint when he’s available.
“The system stuff will be fine,” an Eastern Conference scout told ESPN. “But do they have the legs to get there in the end? So much of that comes down to having Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart healthy.
“Those guys, and their overall level of physicality on a nightly basis, really matter.”
But despite all that, the Knicks still reside in the East. For all the holes that can currently be poked into their preseason place as a co-favorite to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time this century, who should supplant them?
The other co-favorite before the season, the Cavaliers, have their own spate of injuries to manage. The Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks, the two trendy picks to finish in the top four behind New York and Cleveland, have also stumbled out of the gate. And, in asking several sources across the league in recent days who they would take over New York to escape the East, no one could produce a firm answer.
“They’ll get by, and win a bunch of games because of talent,” the Western Conference scout said, “but there’s a lot more drama there than I think they would’ve thought there would be in the first week of November.
— Tim Bontemps
Lots of 3s for the Knicks…
The most notable stylistic change for the Knicks is their shot distribution, as they’ve embraced the 3-pointer more than they ever did under Thibodeau.
New York ranked 28th in 3-point attempt rate last season, but in 2025-26, they have the fifth-highest 3-point attempt rate, with 48% of their shots coming from beyond the arc. Only the Cavaliers, Celtics, Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns — who all ranked among the most 3-happy teams last season, as well — have taken more 3s as a percentage of their total attempts than New York.
Interestingly, other than centers Robinson and Ariel Hukporti, the two lowest 3-point attempt rates on the team belong to Towns (35% of his shots) and Brunson (37%), which means the Knicks’ role players are all primarily spacing the floor around the stars.
As a team, the Knicks made 36.9% of their 3s last season, and they’re at 36.5% so far in 2025-26. But the increase in attempts means they’ve leapt from 24th in 3-point makes to a tie for third.
… And for their opponents
The same dynamic has also appeared on the defensive end, where New York allowed the sixth-lowest 3-point attempt rate last season but have surrendered the fourth highest this season; 46% of their opponents’ attempts have come from beyond the arc.
New York isn’t allowing more 3s because it’s made a more concerted effort to block off the rim. Instead, its opponents have converted a portion of their low-value midrange attempts into higher-value 3s. And those opponents are cashing in on those extra tries, making 39.6% of their 3-point attempts, second highest in the NBA.
Granted, there might be a schedule caveat to this factoid because the Knicks have already played the Cavaliers and Celtics, who rank first and second in 3-point attempt rate, while not facing any team that ranks near the bottom of the league. But it’s worth watching to see if the Knicks defense can do a better job shutting off the 3-point flood as the season continues.
A less ball-dominant Brunson
On an individual level, nobody controlled the ball more than Brunson last season. According to GeniusIQ tracking, he led the league with 524 dribbles per game, 8.8 minutes of possession per game and 6.1 seconds per touch.
But this season, Brunson’s possession numbers have declined across the board; those figures have fallen to 431 dribbles, 7.7 minutes and 4.8 seconds, respectively.
A related change is a dramatic decline in Brunson’s pick-and-roll frequency. According to GeniusIQ, he was the ball-handler for 55 picks per 100 possessions last season, second-most in the NBA behind Trae Young. But he’s only in 12th place among high-volume ball handlers this season, with 43 picks per 100 possessions, as Brown tries to democratize the offensive load.
More handoffs
One of the most obvious stylistic signifiers of the Sacramento Kings’ offense under Brown was the handoff, and the Knicks have followed suit under their new coach. They ranked 14th with 23 handoffs per 100 possessions last season, per GeniusIQ, but they’ve zoomed into first place with 43 handoffs per 100 this season.
Brown’s Kings teams used handoffs so often because of offensive hub Domantas Sabonis, who has led the league individually five years in a row. But it’s more of a team effort for New York, which is using all types of handoffs to start its sets.
Towns and Brunson have more than doubled their handoff rates versus last season. Mikal Bridges has nearly quadrupled his handoff rate. New reserve big Guerschon Yabusele has gotten in on the act, and Robinson is setting a career high in handoff frequency through two games.
As part of their greater emphasis on sharing, the Knicks have jumped from 18th in passes per game last season to fifth in 2025-26.
Rotten shooting luck
One might expect that greater diversification to lead to better results for New York, but the Knicks are only 4-3 with the 12th-ranked offense after finishing with 51 wins and the fifth-ranked offense last season. There’s absolutely no reason to panic, however, because the Knicks will likely rocket up the standings as soon as their luck starts to turn.
According to an analysis of GeniusIQ data, the Knicks have underperformed their “expected” point total based on shot quality and shooter identity by 47 points, while Knicks opponents have overperformed their expected point total by 45 points. Essentially, the Knicks have gotten unlucky on both ends; their minus-92-point margin based on shooting luck is by far the largest in the league. (The second-worst gap belongs to the 1-6 Indiana Pacers, at minus-62 points.)
— Zach Kram